Lords Sitting of 25 June 1824

THE SPEAKER'S SPEECH TO THE KING.
At half past two o'clock, his Majesty, accompanied by the great officers of state, entered the House, and being seated on the throne, the Usher of the Black Rod, was directed to summon the Commons to attend his Majesty. In a few minutes the Speaker appeared at the bar, accompanied by about sixty members.
The Speaker then delivered the following speech:—
"May it please your Majesty—We, your Majesty's faithful Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, attend your Majesty with our concluding bill of supply.
"It was indeed gratifying to us to learn from your Majesty, at the commencement of the session, that the agricultural interest, so deeply important as it is to our national prosperity, but to which parliament could at any time have afforded but very partial and imperfect relief, was gradually recovering from the depression under which it had so grievously laboured; and we confidently hope, that that improvement will be the more substantial and the more satisfactory, because it has continued and still continues.
"Equally gratifying to us, Sire, was your Majesty's declaration, that trade and commerce were extending themselves both at home and abroad; that increased activity pervaded almost all branches of manufactures; and that the growth of the revenue had been such as not only to sustain public credit, but, after providing adequately for the services of the year, to leave such a surplus as might be most satisfactorily applied to the reduction of some parts of our system of taxation.
"Sire, we did not hesitate to make ample provision for the augmentation of our establishments by sea and land, rendered necessary by" the distribution of your Majesty's naval force and the strengthening of your Majesty's garrisons in the West-Indies.
"Sire, after providing for the services of the year, it was a most acceptable duty imposed upon us; to consider in what manner the reduction of such parts of our taxation could be effected as would be best calculated to infuse fresh life and vigour into important branches of the national industry.
"Sire, two courses were obviously open to our consideration—the reduction of direct taxation, or the disencumbering the trade of the country of those restraints and impediments which are so utterly inconsistent with every enlarged and enlightened principle of trade, and which nothing but the exigencies of the state, or the infancy of trade, could at any time either recommend or justify.
"Sire, the latter alternative was adopted by your Majesty's faithful Commons; the field, however, was large before us, and to our exertions there was obviously this limit—the extent to which the re-

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venue would allow of the immediate sacrifice, and the consideration that it would neither be practicable, nor, if practicable, would it be adviseable, too roughly and too precipitately to break down a system, which, however faulty, had been the growth of ages, and on the existence of which 6o immense a capital had been invested.
"Sire, so far, then, as our means would admit, and so far as a due attention to the difficulty and delicacy of this alteration of system would allow, we have effected as we confidently hope, a vast and permanent advantage to the nation.
"Sire, in considering the state of Ireland, we have felt it, however painfully and reluctantly, our imperative duty to concur in the enactment for another year of the Insurrection act—not, Sire, deluding ourselves with the vain hope and expectation that such a measure would cure the evils or remedy the grievances with which the disturbed districts of that country are so unfortunately distracted—not, Sire, concealing from ourselves, the harshness of the enactment and the severity of the penalties, or the total inaptness of the law itself to the first and fundamental principles of the British constitution—much less, Sire, contemplating that such a measure could at any time be proposed as a permanent Jaw for Ireland; but, deeply impressed as we are with the emergency of the moment, confident that the existence of such a law has restrained the excess of outrage, and believing that it has operated as a protection to the innocent, and even as mercy to the guilty, we have felt, Sire, that the magnitude of the evil, and the experience of the efficacy of this law to mitigate in some degree the extent of that evil, call for and justify its temporary re-enactment.
"Sire, it would ill become me to enter into detail on the various other subjects which have engrossed our attention; but I may be permitted to express a perfect conviction, that your Majesty's faithful Commons, by their anxious deliberations to effect whatever may conduce to the permanent interests of the nation, have entitled themselves to the gracious approbation of your Majesty, and to the full and entire confidence of the public."

THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION.
The royal assent was then given to sundry bills, after which his Majesty delivered the following speech:
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"I cannot close this session of parliament, without returning to you my warmest acknowledgments for the diligence and assiduity with which you have applied yourselves to the several objects of public interest that have been submitted to your consideration.
"I deeply regret the painful necessity under which you have found yourselves of renewing, for a further period, measures of extraordinary precaution in Ireland.
"I entirely approve of the inquiries which you have thought proper to institute as to the nature and extent of the evils unhappily existing in the disturbed districts of that country, and I have no doubt that you will see the expediency of pursuing your inquiries in another session.
"I continue to receive from all foreign powers the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards this country, and you may rely on my endeavours being invariably directed to the maintenance of general peace, and to the protection of the interests and extension of the commerce of my subjects.
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons," I thank you for the supplies which you have provided for the service of the present year, and especially for the grants which you have so liberally made in furtherance of the interests of religion, and in support of the splendor of the Crown.
"I am fully sensible of the advantages which may be expected to arise from the relief you have afforded to some of the most important branches of the national industry.
"My Lords and Gentlemen," I have the greatest satisfaction in repeating to you my congratulations upon the general and increasing prosperity of the country.
"I am persuaded that you will carry with you into your respective counties the same spirit of harmony which has distinguished your deliberations during the present session; and that you will cultivate among all classes of my subjects those

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feelings of content and attachment to the Constitution, upon the continuance and diffusion of which, under Providence, mainly depends, not only individual happiness, but the high station which this
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kingdom holds among the nations of the world."
After which, the Lord-Chancellor by his Majesty's command, prorogued the parliament to the 24th of August.